Defying expectations, Prime Minister Paul Martin has led his Liberals to a fourth consecutive mandate. Short of a majority, however, they'll be governing as a minority in a fractured Parliament.
"An election is a time to pass judgment," Martin said to a cheering throng of supporters in Montreal late Monday night. "And the message in this regard was unmistakable: Canadians expected and expect more from us."
Acknowledging the sponsorship scandal that almost cost him the election, Martin added, "As a party and a government we will do better. We will be working hard every day to gain your confidence."
He also said he was up to the challenge of a minority government.
"This is the first minority government in a generation. It is unfamiliar terrain," Martin said.
Stopping short of admitting he will turn to Jack Layton's NDP for support, the Liberal leader said he's prepared to do what it takes to form an effective government.
"We are up to the challenge and we will embrace it. We will make it work. We will make it work for all Canadians."
Most of Martin's cabinet kept their seats, including Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, Veterans Affairs Minister John McCallum and Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham.
In total, the Liberals took 135 seats. That is far more than the 99 won by Stephen Harper's Conservatives, but nowhere near the 155 needed for a majority government.
The NDP nearly doubled the number of seats to 19, while the Bloc Quebecois dominated in Quebec, winning 54 of 75 ridings. An Independent candidate in British Columbia took one seat.
Reporting from Montreal, CTV's Roger Smith said the Liberals were buoyed by the distribution of seats.
"They were very happy that their numbers, with the NDP, would put them over the top on any given issue," Smith told CTV. "Not because they want any kind of formal coalition with the NDP. It just means on certain issues they will be safe."
The Liberals won 36.7 per cent of the vote, down from 40.8 per cent in the 2000 election. The Conservatives won 29.6 per cent with the New Democrats on 15.7 per cent.
Voter turnout was 60.3 per cent, the lowest since 1898.
In his victory address, NDP Leader Jack Layton didn't talk about any sort of coalition with the Liberals. Instead, he repeated his message that Canadians want the NDP to take a central role in government.
"Minority Parliaments have given Canadians good government," Layton told supporters in Toronto. "New Democrats responsibly played our parts in those victories, and we will responsibly play out part in victories to come."
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper told supporters in Calgary that until there is a majority government, the fight is not over.
"We will accept the verdict of the Canadian people, but we will remind the government they have been sent a message... and they will be held accountable," he said.
The Liberal win is bittersweet. The nine minority governments that Canada has seen have never lasted longer than two years, limited by their ability to get bills passed. So unless the Liberals form a coalition with another party, another election may be on the horizon.
Regionally, the Liberals had a strong showing in Atlantic Canada. They took 22 ridings, while the Conservatives won seven seats and the NDP three.
That result wasn't as surprising as those in vote-rich Ontario, where the Liberals took the lead despite polls that suggested the province was a horse race between Martin and Harper's parties. Many Conservative candidates blamed the Liberal attack ads for lower-than expected seats.
"The negative advertising and attack style ads ... sadly had an impact here in Atlantic Canada," said Conservative Deputy Leader Peter MacKay.
CTV's Tom Clark said Harper's musings about a transition and a majority government also hurt him. "Canadians were saying, 'Not so fast. There are still a few weeks left and after all, we the voters get to make this decision,'" Clark said.
Martin still didn't manage to bring his Liberals to the massive majority that so many had predicted just months ago. But that was before the $100-million sponsorship scandal, and a budget by the provincial Liberals in Ontario that brought in health-care premiums.
The anger was reflected in diminishing poll numbers. But those number never materialized in most of the country.
"The pollsters did a big favour for Paul Martin. He's now exceeded expectations by a long way," said CTV's Craig Oliver.
The one place where predictions of flagging Liberal support rang true, however, delivered in spades. In Martin's adopted home province, the Bloc Quebecois handed the Liberals their worst showing in 16 years.
The Green Party did not win a seat, but it did secure enough votes to qualify for funding, setting it up for future campaigns.
"We knew this was going to happen!," Green Party leader Jim Harris said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
"Right off the bat we won 2.9 per cent of the vote in Atlantic Canada, after running just four candidates there in 2000. And the numbers just went up and up as we moved west."
